Four Lions - It shouldn’t really work... but it does

Okay, so the makers of this film must have known that what they were doing would court controversy, but they did it anyway. ‘Four Lions’ tells the tale of a ‘cell’ of British Muslims who are plotting various – lethal – terrorist attacks on Britain.  That wouldn’t be that controversial in itself if the film was a drama, but it isn’t – it’s a comedy – a pretty black one definitely.

Therefore, you will always get a certain percentage of the audience who claims that this sort of area should be ‘off limits’ and not something to be made fun of.  Those people will hate it no matter what and vote it one star (probably either before it was release, or without ever actually watching it).

Yes, it covers a taboo issue, but, although it chooses to mock certain people, it goes to great lengths never to make any sweeping statements about such as how ‘all Muslims are terrorists,’ or something equally as crass.  The central protagonists may wish to cause loss of life through their actions, but you can see that they’re the minority of the minority.  They’re misguided and truly believe that what they’re doing is for the greater good.

You may also think that it would therefore be pretty hard to ever find much to like about this crowd of terrorists.  Yet, you may even find yourself actually liking them, even if you totally disagree with what they do/stand for.

You definitely need a broad/black sense of humour to fully appreciate this.  There are plenty of laughs to find in there, just don’t try and pre-judge it on what some people’s ‘knee-jerk’ reactions to the subject matter were.

If nothing else... you’ll learn the difference between a Wookie, a bear and the Honey Monster.

9/10 almost as perfect as The Godfather